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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to encourage re-reading and re-evaluation of a series of educational polemics published in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Papers. These works proposed, for the most part, avowedly conservative views on education: condemning so-called "progressive" teaching methods and the re-organisation of secondary schools in the UK (especially England) into non-selective comprehensives. It is argued, however, that much said and written about the Black Papers since has concentrated only on selected "high profile" contributors, to the neglect of other contributors, often anonymous, whose comments were sometimes more measured/thoughtful. Design/methodology/approach - The work proceeds first by re-visiting the facts surrounding the writing of the Black Papers and their critical reception. It then analyses the nature of the contributors and describes selected essays not usually referred to when the Black Papers are discussed by historians and others. Findings - The work finds that the Black Papers are often infuriatingly and unhelpful polemical in nature but that much written about them since has concentrated only on selected contributors, ignoring others who were more measured. Originality/value - The work is perhaps the first critical re-reading of the Black Papers in any depth in several decades. It does not simply dismiss them as hysterical rants by ill-informed authors and suggests that they re-pay careful attention, despite their often polemical nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the continuity and changes in Clarke’s ideas about the State and community in education, especially in relation to a rapidly changing political situation in England in the 1930s and 1940s. His ideas evolved in the intellectual context of British idealism. Moreover, in response to the threat to democracy arising from Fascism or Totalitarianism, the distinction between the State and community was a key theme in Clarke’s ideals of liberal democracy. Additionally, this paper also proposes the implications of Clarke’s ideas for future educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper adds to a growing body of literature which views global citizenship education as part of a broader social and cultural process of subjectivity production. Rather than focus on global citizenship in relation to pedagogy or curriculum content, as much of the previous research literature has done, this paper examines it in relation to the practice of travel. Drawing on data generated in ethnographic fieldwork in two UK schools, the paper explores the way in which the young people in these settings used travel to position themselves as successful, mobile, global citizen subjects. The paper argues that these subjectivities were negotiated as part of a dynamic process: one which took place across multiple spaces, in a myriad of different relationships, and in the deployment of a number of different power relations. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the practice of school travel and how it might effectively be focused upon in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses the authors' extensive involvement in e-learning development activities in social care and social work education since the 1990s to explore trends and developments in uptake of technologies for learning and teaching. The paper utilises predictions of papers and reports written between five and ten years ago to critically reflect on past, present and possible future developments for technology use in the sector. The paper tracks milestones in the authors' experiences and reports on evaluative activity associated with later projects that offers some insights into technological preferences of educators, as well as highlighting wider issues in higher education and society impacting use of technologies by both staff and students. The paper's final section touches on a small selection of areas of technology development that may impact the sector and closes with a cautionary view of the ethical minefield posed by personal and professional use of Internet tools and sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how technological change and globalization has influenced the return to education and occupation in Great Britain over the period 1973 to 1994. A number of papers in the literature have documented increasing demand for individuals who possess higher skill endowments than their peers. Both education and occupation can be interpreted as an individual's observable skills and how technology and trade have actually influenced returns to different educational and occupational levels is something that has not been investigated in Great Britain. For the empirical analysis estimates are based upon pooled cross sections over time and also pseudo panel techniques to control for unobservable heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the findings of two studies one completed in 2010 and another in 2019, which employed Q-methodology and post Q-sort semi-structured interviews to an investigation of teachers', in the West Midlands, perspectives of the inclusion agenda. The findings of the 2019 study, demonstrate commonality of findings with that carried out in 2010. The findings reveal that teachers in both studies employed integration and inclusion interchangeably in their attempts to define and operationalise inclusive education. Second, the findings of both studies demonstrate that teachers support inclusion at a theoretical level but in practice find it a difficult concept to operationalise. The 2019 study, though, denotes that a significant barrier to inclusion is whether children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) should or should not be included in SATs. The article details and reflects on the findings of both studies and concludes that the continuous use of SATs needs to be reconceptualise especially in how they enable the inclusion of all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocational qualifications in England are undergoing another round of reform. This paper starts by reviewing the alleged weaknesses of English vocational qualifications, but argues that these do not necessarily establish a case for radical reform. The issue is not so much whether the system needs to be changed as the nature of the change that is needed. The paper argues for a more deliberative and incremental approach and proposes five principles upon which this should be based. These are the following: that the process of change is as important as the content of change; that institutions matter; that the purposes of reform need to be clear, consistent and realistic; that reforms should help to create a more unified qualifications system; and that the interests of the UK’s other home countries should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on data that formed part of a major three-year longitudinal study (2008–2011), which set out to investigate basic skills (BS) provision and needs in the British army and its relationship to operational effectiveness. Using mixed methods, the findings draw on qualitative data from 60 semi-structured interviews with 26 young recruits and interviews and survey data with 1518 recruits, with an average age of 19.6 years. The research also uses testimony from their line managers and trainers. The first part of the paper looks at educational BS provision that the army provides. While the benefits of this provision are discussed, there is a debate about the extent to which BS programmes provide recruits with qualifications rather than enduring and transferable skills, which would make them more operationally effective and useful to the army organisation. The second part deconstructs the concept of what is meant by being ‘operationally effective’ and the role BS play in reaching this ultimate military objective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores doctoral candidates' experiences of making progress through the doctoral space. We engage concepts associated with the 'new mobilities' paradigm (Urry, J. 2007. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press) to provide insight into the candidate experience of the doctoral journey; exploring specifically the interplay between the fixed structure provided by institutional-level progression frameworks that are commonly implemented by UK universities to measure 'timely progress' across disciplines and the borderlands space that enables and facilitates intellectual freedom, creativity, becoming and adventure. Drawing on notions of 'moorings', 'home on the move', 'connectivity and transit spaces' and 'rhizomic thinking' we analyse narrative data generated through the reflective diaries of doctoral candidates at a modern university in the English Midlands to offer new insight into how universities can provide better doctoral education, that supports: candidates to make a contribution to knowledge; protects well-being; and facilitates timely completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high achievement of British Chinese students in the British education system is established in the official literature and has recently been subject to increased attention and comment; albeit it remains the case that few studies have asked students or their families about the factors contributing to their success. This paper revisits findings from an earlier research project that investigated the extent to which British Chinese students and their parents value education (and their rationales), their experiences of British education, and the construction of British Chinese students by their teachers. The study revealed the ‘hidden racisms’ experienced by British Chinese students, the problematisation of their perceived approaches to learning by British teachers in spite of their high attainment, and the benefits, costs, and consequences of their valuing of education. This article contextualises these prior findings within more recent discourses and debates around ‘Chinese success’, precipitated by increased policy attention to the educational attainment of different groups of students, especially from low socio-economic backgrounds. It argues that these discourses on one hand elevate Chinese successes and teaching methods (in contrast to prior narratives), but on the other they continue to exoticise and ‘Other’ the British Chinese, misrecognising educational practices common among White middle-class parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares access to full-time undergraduate higher education (HE) by members of less advantaged social classes and ethnic minorities across the four ‘home countries’ of the UK. It uses data on applicants to HE in selected years from 1996 to 2010. In all home countries students from intermediate and working-class backgrounds retained a broadly level share of a rising total participation in HE, while ethnic minorities increased their share. Intermediate- and working-class students were more likely to study within their own home country, as were ethnic-minority students in England, but minority students from Northern Ireland and Scotland were much more likely than white students to study elsewhere (usually England). Some aspects of the admissions process appear to have been ‘unfair’ to lower class applicants; this was the same across the UK although the relative success of applications from colleges and independent schools, which might accentuate or mitigate inequalities, varied across the home countries. In England and Wales, ethnic-minority applicants were less likely to be offered a place but they compensated (only partially in the case of older universities) by gaining entry through clearing; in Scotland they were as likely to be offered a place but less likely to enter HE. The paper discusses the potential of such comparisons for benchmarking and for policy learning. It concludes that the similarities between the home countries are more substantial than their differences, and that administrative and political devolution in the 1990s has had little impact on inequalities in HE. There is no evidence of a significant impact of the divergence between market policies in England and the more social-democratic policies of the devolved administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper offers an account of the historic and ongoing international interchange between Britain and Japan in the field of progressive education. Concentrating on the last half-century, it takes two reference points from Roy Lowe’s writings in 1977 and 2006. Eveline Lowe Primary was a newly built model progressive school when documented by him in a seminal work on school architecture, later becoming a key point of interest for Japanese educationists. The British educational policy context against which this exchange of ideas and practices occurred was later documented by Lowe in a major book. Contemporaneous debates and events within Japanese society and government meanwhile provided the impetus for networks of research and transmission of progressive practices. The most recent turn in the narrative presented here demonstrates Japanese support for independent progressive practice continuing in the UK. Responding to an extensive historical research literature on transnational migration of educational ideals and practices this paper constitutes a micro-study that draws on personal memory, oral testimony, records of classroom observation on site and by means of video-conferencing, in addition to more formal documentation of conference proceedings and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of prevailing issues in UK legal education in terms of current developments and changing patterns. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is designed to bring together a range of perspectives which inform how legal education is changing in terms of key spheres of influence. The authors are directly involved with the Committee of Heads of University Law Schools in the UK and also have extensive experience of managing law programmes in business and management environments. This experience provides a dynamic opportunity to lead ideas for change whilst being at the forefront of policy and strategy. Findings – Globalisation of legal, business and management education indicates that the stimuli operating in one jurisdiction are not without response to others. Universities are subject to external influences which impact on the extent to which law schools are able to operate. Political, social, economic and technological factors shape the nexus between external factors and internal spheres of influence. In many ways, law schools appear well-placed within business or management schools to maximise opportunities to lead change most effectively. This wider perspective provides the ability to transcend local influences and create a more contemporary environment in which to enhance legal education in a global context. Originality/value – The value of this paper is to highlight current challenges for those in positions of policy-making and strategic responsibility in law schools. It provides an awareness of prevailing issues in order to inform thinking about how best to position legal education given the changing influences which shape legal education in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between education, parenting and family through the prism and particularities of family learning. Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities. Based on qualitative research undertaken in West London, this paper draws on individual and group interviews with mothers participating in family learning classes and interviews with family learning providers. The key argument we extend is that focusing on the social geographies of family learning - of home, school, work, community and nation - allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state's reach in family life, producing particular normative versions of family and 'good' parenting operating at a range of interconnecting scales. Education remains a cornerstone of family policy in the UK and detailed analyses of specific initiatives at the point of implementation - how they are practiced and received - is vital for better understanding their diverse and varied effects in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the scope and range of Christian involvement in establishing the field of education in England as a distinct area for scholarship between 1930 and 1960. It advocates greater study of the range of various denominational positions held in the period. This paper also illustrates the public debates of the time by focusing on the examples of a number of prominent educationists in leadership positions who were directly associated with the founding and running of major British education journals and societies. This article uses newly released personal archival records not previously available to accounts of the period. It begins by situating their perspectives in the wider historical context, particularly the intellectual background of ideas that influenced and set the tone for their work. It then introduces some of their beliefs and assumptions, as well as their achievements and failures, in the realm of religion and education. It reviews and critiques their different Christian conceptualisations of education, and offers reasons why they failed to make a lasting Christian impact on the subject under a newly emergent secular culture in the 1960s. This article argues that researchers have generally neglected the influence of Christianity in the early establishment of education as a discrete area of academic study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the development of a needs-based funding formula for resource allocation incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses interview data and documentary evidence gathered from a UK local education authority about the creation of a "needs-based" formula for sharing resources to schools. It employs and extends a framework developed by Levačić and Ross to evaluate needs-based formula funding. Findings - Although formula funding is purported to be a more objective method of resource allocation, the paper finds that as with other resource allocation methods the power relations between the funder and the service provider impacts on the extent to which service provider needs are incorporated into the funding formula. Research limitations/implications - This paper considers only the funding of schools. Further work is needed to investigate formula funding for other public services. Practical implications - Debates between funders and service providers should be encouraged by policy makers to ensure that allocations based on the funding formula are acceptable to service providers. Originality/value - The paper provides a useful analysis of a needs-based funding formula for resource allocation in schools and whether this incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the voluntary work of girls in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Historians have so far neglected to study social work as an integral part of middle-class girls' formal and informal education. The paper uses records of several little-known girls' service leagues including Time and Talents, Girl's Realm Guild of Service, Girls' Diocesan Association and United Girls' School Mission. It argues that the priority accorded to training, social study and self-development made membership of a service league a valuable source of further education before 1914. The paper begins with an overview of such leagues and a discussion of the training, study and social work undertaken. It considers how the work of service leagues was framed by broader debates around active citizenship. Finally the paper looks at some of the impacts of service leagues both on members and on the working-class women and children they aimed to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers new insights into the effects of neo-liberal education policies on some Muslim majority schools in Birmingham. It critically reveals how the implementation of neo-liberal education policies, pursued by both Labour and Conservative Governments, has contributed to the failure of some mechanisms of school leadership and governance. The move away from agreed collective public and civil values to individualistic and private values as the guiding principles of public education has produced confusion in role, function and relationships. This is considered within the context in which secular liberal education aims to allow different minorities to flourish and recreate themselves. The paper outlines how the state has entered more fully into the lives of children and families through limitless government regulations and how OFSTED appears open to political interference by government regularly changing the framework for inspectors to suit the latest priority. Accordingly, the judgements of OFSTED have become contestable especially as the framework becomes the means through which every aspect of school life is to be considered, including ‘extremism’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historically, to be a black public intellectual in Britain has, almost by definition, meant being located on the liberal-left spectrum, in terms of analyses of race and class. However, in the past decade a number of high-profile black British thinkers have explicitly positioned themselves at odds with black liberal and radical traditions of thought. This has been particularly apparent in their critiques of multiculturalism, youth and education. This paper uses recent documentary sources to analyse the discursive features of this emergent black social conservatism, examining its claims to authenticity, its claims to offer rethinking of multiculturalism and identity, and its objects of racialization. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis and critical theories of race and black intellectual production, it identifies internal tensions in this emergent discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English education has recently experienced radical policy reform in the areas of school autonomy and accountability. The key focus of this paper is on how schools might best navigate through these policy moves. It highlights how these moves have constructed schools, teachers and students in problematic ways but also how they are offering possibilities for improving the quality of schools and schooling. The focus here is on the promise and scope of school collaboration. The difficulties of creating socially responsive and responsible collaboratives in the current ‘heterarchical’ and market-oriented policy environment are acknowledged. Guided by quality democratic governance, they are, nonetheless, presented as crucial in supporting schools to productively deal with the demands of this environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents comparative case studies of non-formal development education by non-profit organisations in two European countries. The study aimed to explore the extent to which such activities provide opportunities for transformative learning. The research was qualitative and began with interviews with educators across 14 organisations in Britain and Spain. Case studies were then identified, purposefully selecting interesting non-formal activities. This paper presents four activities and analyses their potential for transformative learning, drawing together ideas from the literature and the cross-case analysis of the perspectives of development education practitioners. By using the framework of transformative learning pedagogies, this research can inform non-formal education with aims regarding social justice in a range of contexts. It is argued that while there are scarce opportunities for sustained non-formal development education, these cases contribute to knowledge by providing examples of how participative methodologies can generate critical thinking and thus offer learning opportunities that are transformational. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The primary aim of the study from which this paper derives was to investigate the level of parental involvement in the schooling of their children. The study employed a descriptive case study research design. All data were based on unstructured interviews with the 30 parents whose children attended one of the primary schools located in the London area of England, United Kingdom. The results of the study showed that parents care about their children's education, and want to get involved. However, results also showed that most parents do not always know how to get involved, and some are even intimidated by the operational structures within the school. The study concludes that to effectively involve parents in the affairs of the school, as well as in their children's education, certain strategies must be popularised within the school. It is recommended that parents be made aware of the strategies for their involvement in children's education if such strategies are to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first situates King Alfred in Winchester, in Wessex, in Anglo-Saxon England, and in the Christendom of the ninth century. Attention is drawn to Alfred’s education, which included experience of court life in Wessex, Rome and Francia. The paper argues that Alfred prioritised vernacular literacy as a means of educating elites in a shared culture of service. This project required the attraction to his kingdom of scholars from abroad, the translating of foundational Christian texts into Old English, and the use of the court as a school. The king provided the context, and the resources, for supporting craftsmen engaged in the manufacture of, among other items, book-pointers, small high-value objects intimately associated with literacy and at the same time badges of service as well as of honour. The concluding section assesses Alfred’s sustained promotion of his educational project as connected to the rest of his political and ideological agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As subjects of the parental right to choose (DES, 1988), parents are called upon to fulfil certain duties and responsibilities when choosing a secondary school for their child, with the expectation that they might navigate the school system ‘successfully’ and become ‘better informed consumers’ (DCSF, 2008). To comply with these rules of citizenship parents are encouraged to make use of a variety of information on schools as part of a realistic and informed choice, one that is consummate with their role as consumer-citizens. Such ‘cognitive mapping’ is evident in school brochures and websites where choice is assembled on the basis of visual iconography and narrative terrains. This leads to a consideration of how choice is visually mediated and communicated through the circulation of symbols and the structure of narratives. To explain these phenomena, I analyse and compare the ways in which two all-girls faith secondary schools attempt to (further) define themselves, culturally, historically and pedagogically, in a crowded field of choice. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the benefits and insights generated through a visually orientated approach to the study of school choice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses findings from a small-scale empirical exploration of the views, experiences and educational practices of middle-class minority ethnic families in the United Kingdom. It draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 36 parents, pupils and 'young professionals'. Analyses consider to what extent generic class resources, as identified by the US work of Lareau, are evident within the educational practices of British middle-class, minority ethnic families. It is argued that generic class resources and practices were evident to the extent that parents expressed a desire for personalised education, felt comfortable voicing their opinions and concerns to schools, and were willing to climb the ladder of authority to get their voices heard. However, it is also argued that 'race' plays a significant and complicating role that calls for a qualification (but not a negation) of Lareau's theorisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper proposes a critical reflection on the use of quantitative sources for the historian of education. It identifies and discusses key promises and challenges related to the construction and interpretation of historical statistics in education, drawing on a number of British and some French historiographical examples. Ultimately, the article encourages, where possible and appropriate, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in order to identify trends and patterns in education and facilitate their contextualisation in terms of processes and meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--The paper examines the effects of pupil-teacher ratios and type of school on educational attainment and wages using the British National Child Development Survey (NCDS). The NCDS is a panel survey that follows a cohort of individuals born in March 1958 and has a rich set of background variables recorded throughout the individuals ' lives. The results suggest that, once we control for ability and family background, the pupil-teacher ratio has no impact on educational qualifications or on men's wages. It has an impact on women's wages at the age of 33, particularly those of low ability. We also find evidence that those who attend selective schools have better educational outcomes and, in the case of men, higher wages at the age of 33. The impact is greater for the type of individuals who are less likely to attend selective schools but for whom a comparison group does exist among those attending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role re-location has played in shaping the status of elite and middle-class schools in and around London. A Bourdieusian lens is applied to understand the institutional trajectories of 51 schools which moved from central London out to the suburbs and beyond between the 1860s and 1970s. It is argued that this strategy served to maintain, reinforce and create institutional prestige within the ‘field’ of schools serving the upper and middle classes. These re-locations have had a lasting effect on London’s school system, pushing key institutions of elite social reproduction outwards and away from the city centre. In discussing the motivations for re-location, Bourdieu’s (1996) theory of field and elite formation is used with specific reference to urban change, thus developing a Bourdieusian-historical approach to understanding the geography of social reproduction (Thiem, 2009). The focus on London also sets these re-locations in the context of broader socio-spatial shifts within the British upper and middle classes, in which new social formations were emerging, with an aristocratic-financial elite concentrated in the south-east of England (Anderson, 1964; Rubinstein, 1977). Re-location formed part of a broader process of urban and socio-economic transformation which created a powerful educational infrastructure for the upper and middle classes in and around London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforms which increase the stock of education in a society have long been held by policy-makers as key to improving rates of intergenerational social mobility. Yet, despite the intuitive plausibility of this idea, the empirical evidence in support of an effect of educational expansion on social fluidity is both indirect and weak. In this paper we use the raising of the minimum school leaving age from 15 to 16 years in England and Wales in 1972 to estimate the effect of educational participation and qualification attainment on rates of intergenerational social class mobility. Because, in expectation, children born immediately before and after the policy was implemented are statistically exchangeable, the difference in the amount of education they received may be treated as exogenously determined. The exogenous nature of the additional education gain means that differences in rates of social mobility between cohorts affected by the reform can be treated as having been caused by the additional education. The data for the analysis come from the ONS Longitudinal Study, which links individual records from successive decennial censuses between 1971 and 2001. Our findings show that, although the reform resulted in an increase in educational attainment in the population as a whole and a weakening of the association between attainment and class origin, there was no reliably discernible increase in the rate of intergenerational social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of ‘competitive excellence’ is an enduring cornerstone of UK educational policy. Most recently, expanding and adapting New Labour’s Academy project with the introduction of free schools, the Coalition’s approach advances and embeds competitive market-based forms of community engagement in education. Responding to this policy paradigm, this paper draws upon history in order to open up the notion of excellence. Through examining alternative practices of achievement and success in histories of community education, I aim to disturb the unquestioned attachment of educational excellence to the ideals of competitive meritocracy. Comparing across two community educational movements – Socialist Sunday Schools (established 1892) and Black Saturday Schools (established 1968) – I explore how achievement and excellence have been mobilised to very different educational aims. In distinct times and circumstances, both of these community initiatives practiced versions of educational achievement that challenged dominant knowledge hierarchies and underlying assumptions of incapability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on the findings of an international case study in which researchers examined two mathematics departments (Canada/UK) in which the sustained use of technology was strategically established in a mathematics degree program. This case study forms part of a larger research initiative which involved an extensive literature review (Marshall, Jarvis, Lavicza and Buteau, 2012) and a national survey of Canadian Mathematicians (Buteau, Jarvis and Lavicza, 2014). Findings from the case study indicate that sustained implementation at the departmental level requires a unique combination o f key factors such as: a dedicated core group led by a committed advocate in a position of infuence/power; a strong and shared incentive for change; strategic hiring processes; an administration which supports creative pedagogical reform and wellconsidered risk-taking; and, a continuous and determined revisiting of the original vision and purpose. Significant challenges to implementation and sustained program development, with specific examples, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2012, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond announced a radical measure that would see every Scottish school student study a Scottish text from a prescribed list. In 2010, Michael Gove announced that ‘Our literature is the best in the world’ and that every pupil should study particular authors. The ‘cultural heritage’ model of English is increasingly dismissed by teachers and students However, it is this ‘cultural heritage’ model which is preserved in the discourse of politicians. This paper explores the role that literary heritage texts play in the discourse of education policy in the context of devolution in twenty-first century Britain and considers the drivers and differences which can be seen in England and Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given that elevation to permanent secretary is widely recognised as the apotheosis of a career in the Whitehall bureaucracy, it is remarkable that so few have been the subject of sustained biographical research and that this key role remains largely un-theorised. As such, this paper reports on aspects of a longitudinal study which set out to examine, evaluate, and categorise to what extent, and how, permanent secretaries influence policy. Based on recorded interviews with those who held this office at the DES from 1976 to 2002, along with those they served and others, it argues that if the role of senior civil servants can be labelled ‘meta-political’, they do influence policy in significant ways. As such, it suggests that their praxis can be interrogated in terms of their activities as makers, shapers, takers, sharers, and resisters of policy in education. Focusing on the career of a committed centraliser, James Hamilton, it examines the contribution he made as permanent secretary to a variety of departmental policy initiatives including the pursuit of voucherisation and the case for a national school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lenton P. Over-education across British regions, Regional Studies. This paper analyses levels of over-education and wage returns to education for males across eleven regions of the UK using Labour Force Survey data. Significant differences are found in the probability of being over-educated across regions; also, differences are found in the return to the ‘correct’ level of education in each region, in each case associated with flexibility of movement between and into particular regions, which determines the ease of job matching. Furthermore, evidence is found that, after controlling for the level of education acquired, there exists a premium to the ‘correct’ level of education, which varies across UK regions. Lenton P. 英国不同区域中超需教育（的状况），区域研究。使用劳动力调研数据，本文分析了英国11个区域中男性接受超需教育 （over-education）的等级与其可能的收入回报。接受超需教育的可能性存在显著的区域差异。各区域中工资回报是否与其所受教育等级 “相匹配” 也存在差异。上述两种情况均与特定区域内部以及相互之间移动的灵活性相关，因为移动性决定了寻找（与其所受教育）匹配工作的难易程度。研究发现，在控制了所需教育等级的情况下，英国不同区域间存在 “匹配” 教育等级溢价差异。 教育 回报 Lenton P. La suréducation à travers les régions en Grande-Bretagne, Regional Studies. A partir des données provenant de l'enquête sur le marché du travail, cet article cherche à analyser les niveaux de la suréducation et le rendement salarial de l'éducation pour les travailleurs masculins à travers onze régions du Royaume-Uni. Il s‘avère d’importants écarts quant à la probabilité d'être suréduqué suivant la région. En outre, il s'avère des écarts quant au rendement du niveau ‘correct’ de l'éducation dans chaque région, ce qui s'explique dans tous les cas par la flexibilité du déplacement entre et dans certaines regions, ce qui détermine et facilite l'assortiment de l'emploi. Qui plus est, il est évident qu'une fois tenu compte du niveau d'éducation obtenu, il existe un ‘ticket d’entrée' au niveau ‘correct’ de l'éducation qui varie à travers les régions du Royaume-Uni. Éducation Rendement Lenton P. Überqualifikation in britischen Regionen, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag werden anhand der Daten der britischen Arbeitskräfteerhebung (Labour Force Survey) das Ausmaß der Überqualifikation und der Lohnertrag im Verhältnis zur Ausbildung von männlichen Arbeitnehmern in elf Regionen Großbritanniens untersucht. Hinsichtlich der Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Überqualifikation wurden von Region zu Region signifikante Unterschiede festgestellt. Ebenso gibt es zwischen den Regionen Unterschiede hinsichtlich des mit dem ‘richtigen’ Qualifikationsniveau erzielten Ertrages, der jeweils mit einer Flexibilität der Bewegung zwischen bestimmten bzw. in bestimmte Regionen einhergeht, welche für das einfache Finden eines passenden Arbeitsplatzes maßgeblich ist. Darüber hinaus werden – nach Berücksichtigung des erzielten Qualifikationsniveaus – Belege dafür gefunden, dass das ‘richtige’ Qualifikationsniveau mit einer Prämie verbunden ist, die von einer britischen Region zur nächsten unterschiedlich ausfällt. Bildung Ertrag Lenton P. Sobrecalificación en las regiones británicas, Regional Studies. En este artículo analizamos los niveles de la sobrecalificación y rentabilidad salarial para la capacitación de personas de sexo masculino en once regiones del Reino Unido con ayuda de los datos de la Encuesta de Población Activa (Labour Force Survey). Observamos diferencias significativas en la probabilidad de recibir una sobrecalificación en las regiones. Asimismo se aprecian diferencias en el rendimiento del nivel ‘correcto’ de formación en cada región, que se asocia en cada caso a la flexibilidad de movimiento entre las regiones y hacia determinadas regiones, lo que determina la facilidad para adaptarse a las ofertas de empleo. Asimismo, las evidencias demuestran que al tener en cuenta el nivel de formación adquirido, existe una bonus para el nivel ‘correcto’ de estudios que varía entre las diferentes regiones británicas. Educación Rendimiento [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 30-year rule governing the release of Cabinet papers means that the British people only learned of a covert 1980s policy to manage the decline of northern England in early 2012. We can only guess at what is really being said behind closed doors today. There are some clues in a series of newspaper reports published in 2012 and in the social backgrounds and professed beliefs of the current Cabinet. They point to what might be the real intention behind reforms in education, health, housing and social security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This paper explores Indian women's views on arranged marriages in the United Kingdom. It is based on research carried out with 32 Indian women studying at a university in the South East of England, UK. The article draws on Wenger's social theory of learning to explore how Indian women's participation in communities of practice in higher education contributes to their participation in arranged marriages. The concept of 'social capital' is used to discuss how women are able to negotiate their participation in arranged marriages, It is used to examine the knowledge and identity resources that women develop through their participation in higher education, which provides them with the means from which to develop the necessary 'bridging ties' leading to their active participation in the wider South Asian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper data are used from the University of Winchester Alumni oral history project to suggest how the historic culture of the institution, as one of the original church training colleges, founded in the mid-nineteenth century, might have been transmitted to those who attended it as trainee teachers from the 1930s, the earliest data that are available, to the late 1970s when its courses diversified. Two questions will be posed. The first will ask what might have been distinctive about teacher training at a church college. The second will consider the possible effects of such training on the professional lives of the alumni as teachers, and beyond, in the community more generally. In their analysis of the data the authors utilise Pierre Bourdieu's key concepts of 'field', 'capital' and 'habitus'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper aims to develop a case for re-considering the role of schools in education policy. The argument is made that considerable amounts of the variation in pupil performance may in fact derive from factors based on variations in parents' ability to buy-in support and enrichment of various kinds for their children. Design/methodology/approach - The argument of the paper is developed using secondary sources to make the case for non-school explanations of variations in pupil performance and then offers a set of illustrations of the variety of types of bought-in support and enrichment now being used in some families. Findings - The paper concludes with the point that two contradictory education policy discourses are in play under New Labour. One, the discourse of standards/achievement, which works through testing, benchmarks, league-tables, ''coasting'' schools, special measures, etc. totalises, individualises and commodifies the student as an ''ability'' - a cluster of performances. And in turn gives rise to ''local economies of student worth'' that ''value'' students differently within the processes of ''school choice''. The other, the discourse of choice and active parenting, totalises, individualises and commodifies parents and families as ''consumers'' of education and investors in cultural capital. Research limitations/implications - The paper is discursive, exploratory and wide-ranging. It sets out to make a plausible case that would merit further research rather than to establish at this stage a set of firm conclusions. Practical implications - If the argument is taken seriously then the focus of education policy would be decisively shifted. There is some evidence of a shift of emphasis towards more intervention and individual attention but achievement differences remain firmly located within schools. Originality/value - Little attention has been focused on this kind of argument and there has certainly been no attempt to map the variety of and growth in private educational services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the educational experiences of a specific group of refugees, namely academic women refugees who were members of various branches of the International Federation of University Women, and who came to Britain under the auspices of the British Federation of University Women from 1933. As a result of voluntary or forced migration some 400 such women from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria sought entry to Britain following Hitler's accession to power in Germany in 1933. The help they received from the specially formed Emergency Refugee Committee of the British Federation of University Women, not only in gaining entry to the country but in refashioning their pre-migration educational and academic achievements, is looked at in detail, and the extent to which the women were able to retrain, re-qualify or complete training courses curtailed by political events and migration is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the effects of imperialism on British (or chiefly English) social life and education in the nineteenth century rather than examining the effects on the colonised as is usually done. It is shown that the nineteenth century was infused with different visual and written images which helped develop attitudes and ideas which influenced social change in Britain. The “imperial gaze” demonstrated a fascination with the unknown and exotic; a scientific curiosity to discover, collect, classify and explain; an economic desire to find and exploit; and mixed motivations from religious, humanitarian and nationalistic impulses to convert, “civilise” and dominate. In different ways and at different levels this entailed a wish to “know” and an urge to pass on presumed “truths” that interlocked imperial influences into educational enterprise, although not necessarily within formal schooling. As the century progressed, events within the expanding empire, combining with scientific theories, helped to develop cultural arrogance, dominated by ideas of white, Western superiority. Yet there was no homogenous, uncontested discourse. As post-imperial debates suggest, chronological shifts, differing gender and class responses are significant. Effects could be paradoxical as those of imperial opportunities and rhetoric were on women's lives. Examples from other imperial nations, especially France and the Netherlands, indicate parallel imperial, sometimes imperialistic, concerns and interests and varying consequences, but in different contexts. The paper ends with some suggestions on how the difficulties of analysing the effects of empire on social change and education could be addressed within history of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]